Friends Sumlin, Stoops to meet as rivals in Cotton Bowl

Updated 11:30 pm, Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, For The Chronicle

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Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin watches from the sidelines as St. Pius Panthers face off against the Sealy Tigers at Parsley Field on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in Houston. ( J. Patric Schneider / Houston Chronicle ) less

Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin watches from the sidelines as St. Pius Panthers face off against the Sealy Tigers at Parsley Field on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in Houston. ( J. Patric Schneider / ... more

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, For The Chronicle

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Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops answers a question during an NCAA college football news conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. After getting nudged down the rankings in the first three weeks of the season, Oklahoma (2-0) emerge from an off week to play No. 15 Kansas State (3-0) on Saturday night in Norman. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) less

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops answers a question during an NCAA college football news conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. After getting nudged down the rankings in the first three weeks of the ... more

Photo: Sue Ogrocki, STF

Friends Sumlin, Stoops to meet as rivals in Cotton Bowl

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COLLEGE STATION - Ten years ago, Kevin Sumlin made a lasting impression on Bob Stoops over a three-hour span when Oklahoma played at Texas A&M. Six games prior, then-A&M coach R.C. Slocum had promoted Sumlin to offensive coordinator, and the immediate results were impressive for the once-stagnant Aggies.

None more so than on Nov. 9, 2002, when Sumlin's offense, directed by electric freshman quarterback Reggie McNeal, toppled then-top-ranked OU 30-26 at Kyle Field. Three months later, Sumlin was on Stoops' staff, following Slocum's dismissal by then-A&M president Robert Gates at the conclusion of a 6-6 season.

But that fateful day wasn't Stoops' first impression of the future A&M head coach.

"I had great respect for Kevin before he was the offensive coordinator when the Aggies beat us," Stoops said Wednesday. "Heck, Kevin and I used to run around south Florida together recruiting when he was at Purdue and I was at Kansas State. We were chasing the same kids all the time."

On Jan. 4, Sumlin's kids - aka players - will be chasing Stoops' kids in the Cotton Bowl, and vice versa, in the first on-field collision of the mentor and one-time protégé, who remain close friends.

"Besides the national championship, as far as exciting matchups for bowl games, I'd put ours up there with anybody's," Sumlin said.

When the Cotton Bowl was announced on Dec. 2, Sumlin, 48, said his first reaction was, "Awww" - but then he quickly got over the idea of facing Stoops, 52.

"You never really like in this profession playing really good friends," Sumlin said. "It's awkward at first, then you try to beat the hell out of each other."

A month after Slocum's firing a decade ago, then-Colorado coach Gary Barnett brought Sumlin onboard as receivers coach. But the Sumlin clan didn't have time to unpack its bags in Boulder, Colo., before Stoops reached out to Sumlin for the Sooners' tight ends and special teams gig.

Three years later, Sumlin was promoted to co-offensive coordinator, and following the 2007 season, he earned his first head coaching opportunity at Houston.

"Kevin is incredibly bright in everything that he does," Stoops said. "He relates well with his players, he's an excellent recruiter - all the things you want. He was great here, and he's doing a great job (at A&M)."

Sumlin was 35-17 over four seasons at UH before the Aggies hired him to breathe life into a program that had hovered around .500 over the past decade.

The 10-2 Aggies responded in his first season with double-digit wins for the first time since 1998 and their first Heisman Trophy winner, freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel of Kerrville Tivy, since John David Crow in 1957.

"The winning culture that Bob has created at Oklahoma is something you have to be inside of to really see, understand and feel how it works," Sumlin said of Stoops' influence on his career. "It's how you do things on an everyday basis, the expectation level you have with the players and the program, how you treat people … our families were involved.

"A lot of people have come here and said we do things a lot alike, and I wouldn't doubt it. And that's a compliment."